Jones blasts GCB for Windies women low key welcome
— apologises to Smartt and Campbelle
By Treiston Joseph
The National Sports Commission (NSC) is completely absolving themselves from their no-show at the arrival of the Guyanese women who represented the winning West Indies female T20 World Cup squad.
Director of Sport, Christopher Jones rested the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Guyana Cricket Board for not bestowing Shemaine Campbelle and Tremayne Smartt with an auspicious welcome.
“The GCB who is the authority in Guyana as it relates to cricket whether women, men, under-19, under-17, etc. would have been the recipients of the itinerary of the two players just as they would have been for the others of which before they invited Government representatives of the office of the Director of Sport and others.
“For reasons best known to the GCB they withheld the information on the arrival of the two female cricketers from the Government and people of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana… in general if you look at it a representative of the Government was not there, several media houses were not there, the members of the public were not there, this was a secret kept for reason best known to the Guyana Cricket Board.”
He added: “Or perhaps its shows the level of respect the Guyana Cricket Board executive has as it relates to female participation in cricket,” Jones quipped.
Jones even revealed that ten SC showed interest in having a “hero’s” welcome for the two talent women.
“We were proactive for example the when the women’s World Cup was won the first thing we queried in terms of how many Guyanese were there, we learnt that Ms Smartt and Ms Campbelle are there and by virtue of that we were making preparation for when they arrived to welcome them, hero’s welcome and so forth,” Jones pointed out.
Jones was also apologetic to both Smartt and Campbelle, ““my heartfelt apologies to Ms Smartt and Ms Campbelleon behalf of the National Sports Commission, the Government and People of Guyana for not affording them a hero’s welcome that they so rightfully deserve.
“We were fully aware that the two female Guyanese were members of the West Indies ICC Women T20 Champions and were eagerly awaiting the arrival to welcome and honour them,” Jones stressed.
Nevertheless, the NSC who will hold a reception in honour of the Guyanese Under-19 players who were a part of the winning West Indies under-19 World Cup team will also incorporate both Campbelle and Smartt into that reception.
In addition, Jones revealed that the plan was to give the Under-19 players two gold cricket bat pendants from Sanjay’s Jewelry but will now have to revisit that to incorporate the female cricketers. The reception will be hosted today at the 704 Lounge from 12:00h.